2019. A game nobody survives. This year might be the exception.|Feb. 17, 1987|United States|101 Min.|R
Genre: Action;Science;Fiction;Thriller
Description: By 2017, the United States has transformed into a totalitarian police state following a global economic collapse and a recent election. To control the population, the government airs violent TV shows, with the most popular being *The Running Man*. This broadcast game show forces criminals, known as “runners,” to flee from armed mercenaries called “stalkers” in a fight for survival, offering a government pardon as the prize.
Ben Richards, a police helicopter pilot, is falsely accused of a massacre during a food riot in Bakersfield, California. Arrested by his own colleagues, he is sent to a labor camp. Eighteen months later, he escapes with two resistance fighters, Harold Weiss and William Laughlin, and finds refuge in their camp led by Mic. The resistance plans to hijack the ICS broadcast network’s uplink facilities to expose the government’s lies. Richards initially refuses to assist and goes to his brother’s apartment, only to discover it is now occupied by Amber Mendez, a composer, and learns his brother has been sent to a re-education camp.
Richards takes Mendez hostage to flee to Hawaii but is arrested at the airport when she alerts security. He encounters Damon Killian, the ruthless host of *The Running Man*, who coaxes Richards into participating in the show in exchange for Weiss and Laughlin’s freedom. Meanwhile, Amber watches a news report falsely claiming Richards killed people at the airport, which she knows is untrue. Once the game begins, Killian sends all three men into the arena, an abandoned part of Los Angeles. They are attacked by Professor Subzero, but Richards kills him with a piece of razor wire, marking the first time a stalker has died on the show.
Mendez discovers the unedited footage of the Bakersfield massacre but is captured and sent into the game zone. Together with Richards, Weiss, and Laughlin, she searches for the uplink. Killian deploys two more stalkers, Buzzsaw and Dynamo, to hunt down the four runners.
Cast director: Paul Michael Glaser
Cast actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Gus Rethwisch, Professor Toru Tanaka
Original name: The Running Man